Aaron Olwell (flute, fiddle, concertina and vocals.) Meg Madden (fiddle, feet and vocals.) Josephine Stewart (vocals and feet.) Matthew Olwell (flute, feet, percussion and vocals.) Amanda Kawolski (upright bass.) Cleek Shrey (piano.)
Influences
To numerous to count, but here are a very few...
Tommy Peoples, Liz Carroll, Matapat, Nightingale, Rodney Miller, The Freight Hoppers, Rayna Gellert, Donny Golden, Le Vent du Nord, Joe and John Hermann, The Fiddle Puppets, Bruce Molsky, Root Crops and Ground Cover, Flapjack, Domino, Dirk Powell, Musicalia, Donald O'Connor, Ralph Nader, Douglas Adams, Winnie the Pooh.
Matt's dancing in the new Uncle Earle Video, check it out:
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Welcome to the rolling blue hills of Virginia, a musical crossroads where Irish music goes hand-in-hand with the irresistible, driving rhythm of French-Canadian fiddling and step dance. Red-hot fiddle tunes from the Appalachian old-time repertoire nail down a solid floor for clogging and flatfooting. Hell on the Nine Mile performs an excitingly raw mix of music and dance stemming from Irish, American and Canadian traditions. Their debut CD, Witt's End was released in November, 2005. It features Aaron and Matthew Olwell, Meg Madden, Josephine Stewart, Cleek Shrey, Danny Knicely, Yann Falquet, and Amanda Kawolski.
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The band has performed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and last summer shared the stage at the Old Songs Festival in New York with multi-instrumentalist and Rounder recording artist Bruce Molsky and Irish accordionist John Whelan. They have been featured on Acoustic Sunrise (WNRN Charlottesville), and WTJU Charlottesville. For the past three years they have played for packed dance halls in their home state of Virginia, as well as Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania. Recently they were chosen to open the annual Charlottesville Fall Dance Festival.
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The core of the band consists of brothers Matthew and Aaron Olwell (sons of renowned flute maker Patrick Olwell), fiddler Meg Madden, singer Josephine Stewart, piano player and fiddler Cleek Shrey and bassist Amanda Kawolski. Aaron plays flute, fiddle, concertina, and banjo and Matthew plays flute, bodhran, and foot percussion. Both brothers were part of the family business from an early age, learning the craft of flute making from their father, and tapping into a rich culture of shared musical ties between Ireland and America. Olwell flutes are brought to life in the hands of musicians like Seamas Egan (Solas), Matt Malloy (The Chieftains), and Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull). Mattthew and Aaron have performed at numerous festivals and concerts with thier father, Patrick Olwell. In March of 2006 the Trio opened for Tom Wolf at the Richmond Forum.
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MATTHEW danced for nine years with the Maryland based Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble, with whom he toured the UK, Canada, Finland and the United States. He was with Footworks in 1996 when they to traveled to London, where they appearing in the UK production of Riverdance. AARON is a three-time All-Ireland Champion on flute, and has performed at the Washington DC Irish Folk Festival, the Philadelphia Irish Festival, and the Kennedy Center. He has appeared with some of the best Irish musicians in America, including Mick Maloney, Mike Rafferty, John Skelton and John Whelan (with whom he has also recorded on the CD Celtic Fire). JOSEPHINE attended Oberlin College, where she majored in theatre and dance performance. She has been singing and dancing since an early age, and is a wealth of many songs bridging the gaps between the folk traditions of the British Isles and America. MEG has been playing fiddle and step dancing for eight years with the Blue Ridge Irish Music School, and has taught at the LEAF festival in North Carolina, as well as at the Augusta Heritage Center in West Virginia.
Hello! It was great to see some of y'all at Clifftop... just wanted to drop a line to see if any of you were coming to this year's FOOTMAD fall fling, and if not, tell ya to get yer butts there anyways :)
Just letting you know we have 2 new events up! Come check them out maybe you would be interested in playing one of them! This year we are taking our events to the next level by adding guitar duels and such.
We thought it might interest you to hear that our debut CD is now available on CD Baby. Click on the little picture below and listen to some samples. Hope you like what you hear :-)
Cheers Jesper Big Hungry Joe Old-time band from Denmark
Hi there. We just uploaded a sneak preview video from the new CD thats coming out in May. Check it out at http://ie. youtube. com/watch?v=8kFSmrJokn8 or on our myspace videos, And let us know what you think of it.
Happy Valentines day.
We have a new record and a new band member and there are three chances this week to hear the band live in Virginia and West Virginia!
Come celebrate life alone or with your lover... we promise to play some really sweet lovesongs and some really great jaded songs of separation, all guaranteed to put a smile on your face!
Best,
joebass, michael, parrish, teddy
Thursday feb 14
Ashland Coffee and Tea
Ashland, VA
Friday feb 15
Gravity Lounge
Charlottesville, VA
Sat feb 16
The Purple Fiddle
Thomas, WV
Sun feb 17
Iota
Arlington, VA
i lost my copy of your cd maybe a year ago now, and don't get to your myspace very often. you need to know, though, that hearing reel du bergerville after the long day that i had today was like a sigh of relief. at the time that i lost it, yours was my favorite cd in my collection. so i just wanted to say thank you for rocking so hard. i really appreciate it.
hullo folks:)
Hows it going? did you all make it to W&W this year? I wanted to but damn being a poor college student heh. hope everything is great! cheers!
:)
it was great seeing you saturday night at mark and kristin's cd party. what a treat in addition to seeing eileen for the first time in 32 yrs was watching all their "special guests" perform as well
great fun for all it was
berto
thanks for the add, I LOVE your music, it's so refreshing and inspiring to know that young people are making real music! good luck, and keep having fun and enjoying the music, it shows! I will be ordering a cd!
Thanks for the add guys! Matthew & Aaron it was great hearing you guys play at Footmad Fall Festival. Plus you guys playing w/ Rachel, Abe, etc. was amazing!
If you would like a free CD of traditional Irish music drop by my site and leave a comment. Im giving away five of my CDs every Friday for the next month or so. (Shipping is included) Just leave some type of comment and youre in the running. I just finished putting this disk together and would like a little feedback. I hope to hear from you soon. I gave away five last week and will give away five more this Friday.
If you would like a free CD of traditional Irish music drop by my site and leave a comment. Im giving away five of my CDs every Friday for the next month or so. (Shipping is included) Just leave some type of comment and youre in the running. I just finished putting this disk together and would like a little feedback. I hope to hear from you soon.
